Project Hail Mary author Andy Weir reveals epic Star Wars pitch

Andy Weir thinks Star Wars can be saved by creating other stories from the original trilogy.

The 54-year-old author, whose novels The Martian and Project Hail Mary have been turned into sci-fi blockbusters, has pointed out an issue with the constant reinvention of the iconic saga.

He told Slash Film: "Star Wars is more about massive upheaval.

"One problem that happens is, if you're going to have a story about a monumental war, then when it's over and the good guys win, you want it to stay that way.

"So it's very unsatisfying if you roll into a new monumental war."

Fans had similar concerns with J.J. Abrams' 2015 film The Force Awakens, which saw the Empire and the Rebellion replaced by the First Order and the Resistance.

Weir suggested the way forward for Disney and Lucasfilm is to learn from the success of 2016's Rogue One, which is a prequel to 1977's A New Hope.

He said: "I feel like the best way, in my opinion, to do another Star Wars movie — and I'm not George Lucas and this might be a terrible idea — but would be to have the story of other people during the Galactic Civil War."

He accepted that characters like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) were the key "movers and shakers" for the first Star Wars trilogy, but there is scope to explore more.

He added: "Think of it like this: We know what happened in World War II, but there are some really good fictional stories that take place during World War II.

"So if you treat the Galactic Civil War as, 'Okay, that's established canon, those are the things that happened,' but there's still a lot of stories to tell about other people living through those wars.

"So that's what I would do."

Elsewhere in a galaxy far, far away, work is underway on next year's Star Wars: Starfighter, while Donald Glover is working on a Lando Calrissian spinoff film, and Daisy Ridley is attached to reprise her role as Rey in a new film set 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.

Meanwhile, earlier this year Weir revealed his criteria for moving ahead with a sequel novel to Project Hail Mary.

Andy told ScreenRant: " I don't feel like I have anything strong enough to run with yet. I'm working on this other story. Hopefully, in time, I've got bits and pieces of good ideas for sequels, but not enough to run with. If I'm going to sequel it, I want it to be good."

In the meantime, he has another sci-fi novel in the works.

During the interview in March, he said: "I'm working on my next book right now. I'm not talking about it publicly, but it's science fiction, of course, and it's a new standalone story. It's not a sequel to anything."